Containerization: The Most Influential Invention That You've Never Heard Of

The intermodal container changed our world. We would never have the interconnected and global economy of today without Malcolm McLean and his system of containerization.

Twitter: @WendoverPro

Please consider subscribing for more great videos about our world!

Attributions:
Northeast passage photo by Collin Knopp-Schwyn and Turkish Flame
"Faster Does It" song by Kevin MacLeod
Additional footage provided by VideoBlocks

Licenses available upon request

[MetrGambler]

First video of yours I watch was "How Budget Airlines Work" and I kept on clicking your videos all day long... So addicting and educational! 100% thumbs up! Great work you do!

[gavin]

"Shipping is so inexpensive"

*Australians laugh, then cry

[Bruno-cbgk]

The majority of products you use are made outside your own countries borders, unless you live in China.

[VictorWithAJi]

So he sold everything he had to start his shipping business?Guess you could say he... couldn't contain his excitement

[reddyboy]

Another fun fact I learned recently is most or all containers are made out of 3mm thick Coreten. It's a brand name for weathering steel that sort of seals itself when it rusts, so only the surface rusts. That's why almost all weathering steel is made in 3mm thickness only, beacause 90% of it is used for shipping. I've been using Coreten to make decorative screens for years because people like the rusty look but don't want their screens to end up falling apart in the weather.

[SputnikCrisis]

the clothes you're wearing have probably been around more of the world than you ever will

[gino]

Who would win?

The entire scientific and entrepreneurial community of humanity

-or-

One boi who convinced everyone to pack shit in the same size box

[mouseluva]

It's kind of weird that it took us that long to figure out that it would be easier to load ships if we stacked things neatly in boxes??? Containerisation feels like a much less complex technology than say the ability to make a vehicle that can traverse the world's oceans. Cool video!

[genbatzu]

currently in the process of watching all your videos. they are well made and very informative! Thank you! Also just noticed on socialblade that your channel exploded in popularity in april/may this year, what happened? :D

[davidnewman]

Malcolm McLean did not design the containers. He hired an engineer to design them. That engineer was Keith Tantlinger, who designed the corner lock that made containerization possible, among other things.

[anupjoseph]

Damn I thought he was referring to replacing virtual machines with containerization

[travers]

Should do a follow-up about palletization, the precursor to the container revolution.

[robburgess]

I like your videos, but whenever you want to put text on the screen you give us several seconds of black screen - I keep thinking that something's wrong with the video. Can you not go to black so long before you start putting text up? Or put a frame around it or something?

[nocomment]

Those logistics videos are so interesting, to understand the processes behind our industrialization

[klemenvoncina]

The paradox of the northwest passage opening is that because of global warming we can now do things that contribute less to global warming...

[ReyMysterioX]

I literally thought this would be about a video about Docker and was like: »When did Wendover start diving into IT-related topics?«

[fobusas]

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson. Really great book on this exact subject.

And I think the video title should have been "The Most Influential Invention That You've Never THINK Of"

[danielwoods]

Holy. Moly. Your channel is the most informative I have ever seen.

[staytrue]

you forgot that the earth is flat and ships sail over the horizon and fall off the edge and get eaten by monsters

[Ooger]

Great videos. Cool and calm voice, no face, only relevant images, concise narration, logically thought through, persuasive tone without hystrionics. And no attempt at humor. Rad.